Sophisticated consumers are demanding a lot more from pizzas than a cardboard crust with toppings. Consumers want all the flavor of a pizzeria pizza in a convenient frozen variety. Pizza manufacturers are responding with premium pizzas, featuring artisan-style crusts with superior flavor and mouthfeel. To achieve more flavorful crusts, manufacturers are fermenting doughs longer and using high quality ingredients.

Quality ingredients are key in making a premium pizza, says Gary Donaldson, quality assurance R&D manager, Custom Foods Inc., DeSoto, Kan. He recommends using granulated sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup because it provides a better crust color and flavor. High protein flour helps provide more crispiness in the finished crust. “The bar is being raised all the time. Better quality ingredients are being used. Frozen pizza at the store level is where we're seeing the biggest improvement, including really good technology on the sheeting lines, a lot of fermentation and brick-oven style.”

“I believe frozen pizza companies have improved dramatically the quality of frozen pizzas over the years,” agrees Peter Reinhart, author of numerous books, including American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza, and baking instructor, Johnson & Wales University, Charlotte, N.C. “Many of the premium brands are putting more energy into making the dough. The easiest place to start is using prefermented techniques the artisan bread movement has been championing, such as prefermented dough and sponges.”

In addition, premium pizzas are popping up with unique toppings and ethnic twists, as well as with organic ingredients. Still, experts agree the defining characteristic of a premium pizza is the crust. “Even with the best ingredients in the world on top of a pizza, it's never going to make it more than interesting if the crust isn't great,” Reinhart says. “If you have a great crust and great toppings, then you have the benchmark of an artisan pizza.”

Surviving the microwave

The biggest challenge of making a microwaveable pizza is getting the toppings and crust to heat up simultaneously, says Tom Lehmann, director, bakery assistance, AIB International, Manhattan, Kan. To help the crust heat at a rate more similar to the toppings, bakers increase the fat content in microwaveable pizzas. The total fat content of a microwaveable pizza often is 10 times more than that of a pizzeria pizza. Much of the fat added to a microwaveable pizza crust is in the form of fat flakes. During the baking process, the fat flakes melt out and are absorbed into the dough, which helps create a tender crust with a better mouthfeel.

Another challenge of microwaveable pizza is finding a way to make the crust crispy. “If you put a pizza directly on the plate of the microwave, you get no protection for the dough itself. If it crisps at all, by the time it is crisp outside it is going to be destroyed on the inside,” Reinhart says. A susceptor board, the gray metallic board found in frozen pizza boxes, can help prevent this.

“The susceptor board absorbs microwave energy and converts it to radiant energy. It heats up to about 500°F,” Lehmann says. The pizza sits on the susceptor board, which absorbs the microwaves and then forces radiant energy back into the pizza. Microwave energy will not brown a crust, but radiant infrared will. Some packages offer a susceptor board sleeve with a hole in the middle that fits over the pizza. The microwave energy heats the toppings through the hole, while the susceptor board inside the sleeve absorbs radiant energy and browns the crust, he adds.